altar

lead (one) to the altar

sacrifice (something) on the altar of

To abandon something in exchange for something else (which is named after "of"). The phrase can, but does not have to, include a noun after "sacrifice." I know you want to help your family, but you can't sacrifice your happiness on the altar of servitude.It seems that the curriculum at this school has been sacrificed on the altar of profit.

bow to the porcelain altar

To vomit into a toilet, usually as the result of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Doing so often requires one to kneel in front of or bend over the toilet (the "porcelain altar"), a position that is likened to kneeling before or bowing to a sacred idol. I bet that if Tommy doesn't stop drinking, he'll bow to the porcelain altar all night.I've never thrown up so much in my life. I can't wait till I stop bowing to the porcelain altar.

be sacrificed on the altar of (something)

To be abandoned in exchange for something the speaker considers inferior. It seems that the curriculum at this school has been sacrificed on the altar of profit.I know you want to help your family, but your happiness shouldn't be sacrificed on the altar of servitude.

bow to the porcelain altar

Sl. to vomit, especially as a result of drinking too much alcohol. (The porcelain altar is a euphemism for a toilet bowl.) He spent the whole night bowing to the porcelain altar.I have the feeling that I will be bowing to the porcelain altar before morning.

be sacrificed on the altar of something

If someone or something is sacrificed on the altar of a particular belief or activity, they suffer or are harmed because of it. They promised that the interests of farmers wouldn't be sacrificed on the altar of free trade.Let us hope that these children's education will not be sacrificed on the altar of social experimentation. Note: You can also say that someone or something is a sacrifice on the altar of a particular thing. He was just another sacrifice on the altar of celebrity. Note: An altar was a large stone on which animals were killed during the worship of a god or goddess in former times. The killing of an animal in this way was called a sacrifice.

The bride and most of her company had been too much occupied with the bustle of entrance to hear the first boding stroke of the bell, or at least to reflect on the singularity of such a welcome to the altar.

My young friends here have their nerves a little shaken," said the widow, with a smile, to the clergyman at the altar.

In this altar they used to keep one of the most curious relics that human eyes ever looked upon--a thing that had power to fascinate the beholder in some mysterious way and keep him gazing for hours together.

We passed along a few steps and saw the altar built over the very spot where the good Catholic priests say the soldiers divided the raiment of the Saviour.

Where better could we leave him than at the altar before which he had first caught a glimpse of the glory of his birthright, and felt the drawing of the bond which links all living souls together in one brotherhood--at the grave beneath the altar of him who had opened his eyes to see that glory, and softened his heart till it could feel that bond?

And let us not be hard on him, if at that moment his soul is fuller of the tomb and him who lies there than of the altar and Him of whom it speaks.

382-387) Thus spoke the lord, far-working Apollo, and pushed over upon her a crag with a shower of rocks, hiding her streams: and he made himself an altar in a wooded grove very near the clear-flowing stream.

Let us not question the motives of the Philistine," interrupted Abel-Phittim' "for to-day we profit for the first time by his avarice or by his generosity; but rather let us hurry to the ramparts, lest offerings should be wanting for that altar whose fire the rains of heaven can not extinguish, and whose pillars of smoke no tempest can turn aside.

In a certain work incidentally treating of the 'Washington, or Northern Marquesas Islands,' I have seen the frequent immolation of human victims upon the altars of their gods, positively and repeatedly charged upon the inhabitants.

And after listening attentively for some time Coifi again cried out, "'I advise, O King, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples and altars which we have consecrated without reaping any benefit from them.

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